This past duck season on the Scenic Hatchie River was not the best we ever had. Some have said it was one of the worst. We had some water out of the banks and we certainly had cold weather. I hunted several days while the temperature was in single digits. It takes a special kind of outdoor enthusiast (the word is crazy) to duck hunt when the temperature is 8 degrees. One day it was so cold snow was falling but there was no cloud in the sky. The snow was frozen moisture in the air.

I took these photos on the 28th of February down stream from Highway 51 in Tipton County. It never fails, when the season is over, the ducks show up!

The sun was so welcome to me, I had to get out and take a boat ride. I took my best friend along. I am not sure who had more fun!

Enjoy!!!!

Earth Day ~ April 17, 2010

We will have a booth at the Earth day celebration in Cobb~Parr Park in Covington April 17, 2010. This is the annual Earth Fest Celebration in Tipton County.

We will be set up at the Nature Center and Veterans Museum from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm. I will have maps, water shed information, historical information and a whole bunch of stories about the out doors. Come share yours too!

Come see us!

Conner

NEXT CLEAN UP DATE Saturday May 8, 2010

Spring is nearly here. I have already serviced my boat and bought a new propeller. Hopefully I won't need it!


I have already had people stop me and ask when we would be doing this again.
Part of the TWRA Clean Stream grant that funded last year's clean up effort had a second event as a component. We will be funded for another cleanup event on Saturday May 8, 2010. This is the Saturday before Mothers Day.

On our journey last fall, our group put in at Highway 54 in Tipton County and progressed down stream to Highway 51. We successfully removed nearly a ton of garbage from the Hatchie, designated as "Scenic" by the State of Tennessee!

For our journey this spring, we will get to experience a different part of the river. After all, this is just an excuse to get outside and on the river.

We will put in at Highway 70 in Haywood County. We will work our way down stream and take out at Highway 54 in Tipton County. Just like last year, I hope to include officials from County Rescue Squads, TWRA and County officials. We will have T-shirts and breakfast and lunch will be provided...FREE. All you have to do is show up!

Mark your calendar! Even if you just want to float along and enjoy this beautiful stretch of river, come on out and join us. Click on the "September" entry to the right to see photos of the event in September of 2009.

Look for more details to follow!

October river

The Hatchie River has begun to be a healthy river again. Agricultural practices have improved reducing runoff from farm land. After heavy rains the river will still be quite turbid, however, the suspended soild level quickly begins to fall off once peak flows into the river begin to wain.

On a recent October day, a friend and I took a boat ride. These pictures are just as the leaves began to change. Notice the color of the water. Look at the placid reflections and how well they show the sky and the trees.

The crops being sprayed are cotton. This is actually defoliant that is being sprayed in the pictures above. Defoliant is sprayed on cotton crops prior to harvesting to make the plants drop their leaves. This insures a cleaner product in the field and a more efficient ginning process.

Enjoy!

Hatchie River Clean-Up Day was great!

Click on the photos to see them more closely!

Despite showers and overcast skies, our first Hatchie River Clean-Up day was a HUGE success.

Nine boats and eighteen volunteers took to the river. Three more volunteers worked on the shore.

Items collected on the river included a propane tank, tires, a toilet, and even a message in a bottle.
Volunteers filled a dumpster with around fifty trash bags, not including the big items. Over one thousand pounds of debris was removed from this short section of river. Contributing agencies included Keep Tipton County Beautiful, Tipton County Rescue Squad, Covington Department of Public Works and the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency.

Our next event is scheduled for May 8th, 2010. However, we have opportunities to prevent litter from spreading every day.

Thanks Everybody!!

River Cleanup event scheduled

The first ever Hatchie River Cleanup event is scheduled for September 19, 2009.

Sponsored by the Tennessee Scenic River Association's Adopt-A-River program and funded by a grant from the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, the first ever clean up is scheduled to begin at 7:00 am on Saturday September 19 at the TWRA river access at the Highway 54 bridge between Tipton and Haywood Counties.

Participants can bring their own boat or ride along with any of the participants. There will also be plenty of opportunities for land side clean up operations. The event will start at 7:00 Saturday September 19 at the Highway 54 bridge.

If you want to participate, it will be fine to just show up, but the handy thing to do would be to call me ahead of time at 901-603-0127.

The event will culminate at the TWRA river access at the Highway 51 bridge by mid afternoon. Lunch will be available at the Highway 51 ramp.

You can learn more about this event at the TSRA website http://www.paddletsra.org/index.html click on the Conservation link on the left. While there, you can read more about the TSRA and the Adopt-A-River program. You can join TSRA at this event if you care to but it will not be necessary. In fact, you can click on any of the convenient links to the right side of this screen.

Come back and check my blog often for event updates and specific information prior to the event.

What's in a name??

I have spent all my life hearing and reading that the word "HATCHIE" is a Native American word meaning “river”. This is aledgedly how the Hatchie River got its name. I always thought that was pretty cool.

A few years ago, a friend of mine gave me a bumper sticker. My friend lives in Brownsville Tennessee. The sticker is popular among the locals in Brownsville and was created by one of their own. The sticker is in the obvious shape of a snapping turtle. Scrawled creatively across its back are the words “LOVE HATCHIE RIVER”. I had a fit over the bumper sticker and just had to have one, so my friend Joe gave me one.

As my curiosity about the Hatchie River has grown over the years, I decided it would be cool to know how to express my new favorite bumper sticker in the Chickasaw language; the language of those first to love this river. Now that would be cool!

There seemed to be one small problem. The word "HATCHIE" is not a Native American word! I searched all the documents and internet sources I could find. I tore through genealogy departments of the public libraries in Tipton County, Haywood County and finally Madison County searching for documents that might lead me to understand this mystery; the mystery of the origin of the name of the Hatchie River.

It was in Madison Counties Public Library genealogy department that I found a breakthrough. It came in the form of a book called:

“A Chickasaw Dictionary compiled by Jesse Humes and Vinnie May (James) Humes ~ 1973 Chickasaw Nation”.

This volume became the Rosetta Stone for me. In pouring over web sites and map archives looking for a clue among different names given to the river by early explorers, a pattern emerged. Armed with these pieces of the puzzle, I have developed this theory.

1) Many places in our country and around the world use derivatives of original names assigned from earlier explorers of different nationalities; eg. Acadia was once the French Acadie for example.
2) The name of the river has changed through the years: In 1813, just prior to the Jackson Purchase of 1818, (when the Chickasaw Indians ceded the land of West Tennessee to the United States) the name appears on a map as "HATCHY River" (Cummingsmapsociety.org)

In 1823 the name of the river picks up an unexpected word in its title and changes its spelling as it appears on a map by B. T. Welch and published by Fielding Lucas, Jr. of Baltimore; "BIG HATCHEE River".

The three word name continues to be used until at least 1899 where it appears again with the same spelling in the eighteenth annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, in which the title remained "BIG HATCHEE River".

In the current day and time the title has dropped the adjective “BIG” and has undergone another revision in its spelling. The title is now simply, "HATCHIE River".

3) The Chickasaw word that is used to refer to a river, stream or creek is "BOKOSHI". That’s fine, but what is most interesting is the pronunciation of the word. It is pronounced BOHK – OSH – E. Here is where I have made the leap. Without using too much imagination one can see that this pronunciation sounds a lot like BIG HATCHEE.

My conclusion: the 21st Century name “HATCHIE” is a derivative of the 18th Century English “BIG HATCHIE” which in turn could be a derivative of the centuries old “BOKOSHI”.

Again, the word "HATCHIE" is not a Native American word meaning “river”. The word does not appear anywhere in the Muskoegean language group. However, the similar sounding word BOKOSHI, heard, imitated and mutilated by early trappers, explorers and settlers does, in fact, mean...RIVER!